Tag team wrestling has long since been a staple in the world of professional wrestling. In its glory days, it wasn’t unheard of for the tag team scene to headline wrestling shows. So, in case you missed out, we tried to pin down the greatest wrestling tag team of all time on the latest episode of The Colossal Tussle Podcast.
Before you call us out. Yes, we realize we forgot the Wild Samoans – one of the greatest tag teams of all time. More importantly, the Wild Samoans produced about a third of the current WWE roster. We get it – leave our families alone. Continue on.
Being the wrestling purist that I am, I had Harlem Heat in my top five. We’re all 90s kids, but for me, I was all in on mid-90s WCW. Dungeon of Doom, Hulkamania, Macho Man, and by God Booker T and Stevie Ray.
They had the coolest outfits, a great finishing move, FIRE entrance music, and awesome action figures. That’s everything 10-year old Stoney lived for. Now that I’m 30, I can look back and now say that no one was able to master the du-rag quite like these two either. Just all around blue chippers.
Unsurprisingly, Bill and Brandon didn’t think they were in serious contention for the greatest tag team of all time. I didn’t want to call them out at the time, but now that I’ve had a week to think about it, I’m pretty sure it’s because they’re racist. I know they’re big Ted DiBiase marks, and we all know what he did to Virgil.
Pretty sure they were in some of the auditoriums with no air conditioning, chanting the N word at “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd back in the 60s. I’m no mathematician, but I think that adds up.
Bottom line is that we realized mid-podcast that WCW wasn’t exactly a mecca for tag teams.
Keep in mind, we’re 90s kids – The Rock n’ Roll Express, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Arn & Tully, The Brisco Brothers, etc. were all before our time. Plus, wrestling was a lot more respectable in the 80s than late-stage WCW.
Actually, I think our high school backyard wrestling federation was more respectable than late-stage WCW. But, that doesn’t make this piece of investigative journalism any better….just forget you read that.
Anyway, I decided to scroll through the history of the WCW Tag Team Championship on a quest to find an answer to the question, “did WCW have any tag teams other than Harlem Heat?”
Right off the bat, I realized I had forgotten that The Steiner Brothers and The Nasty Boys had solid runs in WCW. I’m not the type of guy to consider two established singles wrestlers forming a team a “traditional” tag team, but if you have no such reservations, go on and throw The Outsiders in that mix.
That’s about where the list ends.
Even amidst those teams, WCW had two garbage reigns from The Steiner Brothers that lasted three and two days consecutively. Lex Luger and The Giant teamed up for a whopping 1-day reign in 1997. The Outsiders and The Steiner Brothers swapped the titles six times between January of 1997 and February of 1998. Back and forth and back and forth as if those were the only two teams in WCW.
WCW must have thought title changes meant ratings. “Hey, guys – ratings seem to spike every time a championship changes hands. Let’s just have a title change on every show! Problem solved. Let’s go get a round of Zimas.” It was the 90s after all.
Teams that could have been viable depth in the division were given shitty title runs. The American Males and The Public Enemy both held the titles for just around a week each.
After The Outsiders’ 231-day reign in 1997, only one team held the titles for 100+ days: The Natural Born Thrillers (Sean O’Haire & Chuck Palumbo). This duo held the titles for 205 days, but, uhhh, WCW was bought out by WWE and the bulk of the reign was accrued when WCW wasn’t running shows anymore. When the time came, they were gobbled up by The Undertaker and Kane, and the titles bounced around between WWE teams.
(Side note: Chuck Palumbo is like the Billy Gunn of WCW, and that must have been why they were paired together for an awesome WWE run. #MindBlown)
You think that’s crazy? The championships changed hands seven times in 1998, 18 times in 1999, and 19 times in 2000. Was there a 24/7 rule for the tag titles in WCW? Did I miss that era of tag team wrestling? That’s absurd – more title changes in a year than months.
Over that span, thirteen champions held the belts for less than 10 days. Four teams, including the esteemed Creative Control (The Harris twins) and The Dark Carnival, had 1-day reigns.
Lieutenant Loco and Corporal Cajun, collectively known as The Misfits in Action, boasted a reign of 0 days as champions.
It’s not just the numbers that scream “WE CAN’T COMMIT TO ANYONE!” It’s the quality of the teams themselves. They didn’t make sense. Some of the oddball combinations of wrestlers include Diamond Dallas Page & Bam Bam Bigelow, Bret Hart and Goldberg, David Flair and Crowbar, Shane Douglas and Buff Bagwell, and my personal favorite, Alex Wright and Disco Inferno.
Then, there was Rick Steiner. Yes, The Dog-face Gremlin himself. He teamed with Buff Bagwell to take down The Giant and Scott Steiner in 1998. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Brother vs. brother in a blood feud for the gold – one has The Giant in his corner….the other has Buff Bagwell. It’s LIT, amiright? Well, too bad Buff turned on Rick during the match.
Steiner was allowed to choose a new partner. Naturally, with such established superstars vying for the prize, he elected KENNY KAOS. Are you serious?!?!? Kenny Kaos? You go from Buff Bagwell to one of the High Voltage guys?!? WHY!?
It gets worse.
When Kaos didn’t show up for a match, Steiner elected a replacement again. This time – the choice was Judy Bagwell. That’s right – Buff Bagwell’s mother.
We should have known better. The bizarre booking of WCW’s tag scene could have been predicted when The Fabulous Freebirds lost the titles at a TV taping six days BEFORE THEY WON THEM. Seriously, they’re credited with a -6-day championship reign.
In summary, the WCW Tag Team Championship was a delightful collage of middle-aged women, time travel, and approximately 50,000 champions. It made no sense whatsoever. The company obviously didn’t give a single shit about making the division viable.
The best thing that could have happened to the WCW Tag Team Championship is its death. You can remember the age of Doom, The Hollywood Blonds, and Arn & Tully….I’d prefer to just kill the entire lineage of the titles….kill it with fire.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley,@PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo
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